Democrats: Quit listening to "civility" scolds and concern trolls: This is an emergency [View all]

[DonViejo]

Nothing can be gained by Democrats trying to play nice with the current GOP. But everything can be lost

AMANDA MARCOTTE
JULY 6, 2018 10:00AM (UTC)

Halfway through 2018, it's clear that the year will be remembered by the history books as a time when the Donald Trump administration started its drastic escalation of what amounts to an ethnic cleansing campaign aimed at nonwhite immigrants. So far, the administration has made it a priority to shake the trees to find every legal avenue possible to throw out people Trump considers too dark-skinned. This has included getting the Supreme Court to approve a Muslim travel ban, finding legal loopholes to prosecute people who are legitimately seeking political asylum, and ending temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of people from countries such as Haiti and El Salvador.

Now the administration is even exploring the possibility of denaturalizing immigrants who are now U.S. citizens by accusing them of lying on their applications. This is quite possibly a test case as to whether Trump's enforcers can move towards blatantly violating the law when they're trying to kick people out of the country, without drawing any Republican blowback. (Answer: Probably!)

With the country slouching towards fascism, it's important to note what the national news media considers a majority priority for coverage: Scolding the left for being too upset about the white nationalist agenda of the White House and trying to drum up intra-Democratic drama. Unfortunately, too many leaders on the Democratic side are falling for this, which can be easily avoided by a simple strengthening of backbone.

Endless amounts of column inches and cable-news airtime are now devoted to two propositions: That the left is getting too rowdy in their opposition to Trump's racist agenda, and that Democratic leaders have a responsibility to scold left-wing activists about the importance of not resisting authoritarianism too sternly. In some cases, this takes the form of getting the vapors at progressives who are "uncivil" by protesting Trump officials in public places like restaurants. In others, it's about scolding those who support supposedly radical notions like the abolition of ICE, even though similar lectures are not directed at conservatives who supporting far more radical proposals to abolish the IRS.

The typical structure of these arguments is that of a concern troll: The person telling progressives to simmer down will inevitably cast himself as a concerned party who wants Democrats to win, but believes these tactics are only hurting that agenda and believes the best path forward for the party is to maximize internal sniping over nonsense.

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https://www.salon.com/2018/07/06/democrats-quit-listening-to-civility-scolds-and-concern-trolls-this-is-an-emergency/